Seattle Hotel Suggestions

[Aaron C]

Afternoon,

We are off to Seattle for a few nights in May prior to a cruise. Looking at previous threads the better options seem to be:
Fairmont Olympic
Kimpton Palladium
4 Seasons – very expensive
Edgewater

Has anyone any recent experience with any of these hotels? Ta.

[HM007]

Downtown Seattle best avoided! We used Intercontinental Bellevue: a shortish Uber from the centre and much nicer area

[JenT]

We had a great stay at the Kimpton Palladian. Smallish rooms but we were in Seatttle to do things, not stay in a hotel room.

Plenty of people told us that the Pike Place area was worse than the Pioneer Square area downtown, but we found the opposite. Never felt unsafe or encountered problems, but it does look a bit sketchy at times (if you have been to other US cities in the last few years, Seattle is no different). We walked from the hotel to many places (probably 20 minutes walking was our maximum radius) and found plenty of things to do, eat and drink. We also got the public bus to other places as necessary (no problems there either).

Expensive valet parking at the Palladian but adjacent on-street parking was very reasonably priced for evenings and overnights. Highly recommend Chihuly Glass & Gardens while you are there.

[ExExpat]

I’m halfway through writing a trip report on my recent Canada-via-Seattle trip so will include the relevant parts here for info!

We stayed in Seattle for two nights at the end of June. Had originally booked Kimpton Palladian but changed my mind and cancelled and booked CitizenM South Lake Union for a lower cost and felt it was very good value. We needed to leave at 6am on the second morning so didn’t feel the need to pay more for time we wouldn’t use in the hotel. We were also glad to spend the money saved on a lovely one night FHR stay at The Fairmont Empress in Victoria where we could utilise all the benefits. I was also put off by the nightly $26 amenity fee at the Kimpton Palladian as probably wouldn’t have used any of the benefits. I’ve just checked and the Kimpton cost was $283.20 (Friday) + $287.20 (Saturday) + $111.44 (tax) + $52 (amenity fee), so a total of $733.84. This was for a king room (room only) booked on a Railcard rate with 20% off, with the flexibility to cancel for no charge up to 5 days before arrival.

In contrast, the CitizenM South Lake Union (there is also another one Downtown called CitizenM Pioneer Square) was $503.11 total for a flexible room only rate which would have enabled us to cancel for free up to 2pm on arrival day. They also offer cheaper non-refundable rooms. We managed to check in early and the room was compact but well designed with a super king bed against the far wall with a large window. OH is 6′ 3″ and said the bed length was comfortable. Nice rain shower with decent pressure. The hotel still feels fresh (it opened in 2020) and is in a pleasant area a short walk from the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass, which we visited on the Saturday morning. The staff were very friendly and helpfullt provided plenty of recommendations for local eating and drinking. I would happily stay there again. Will be interesting to see if Marriott have acquired CitizenM by then as there may be points earning/burning opportunities.

If you have access to Amex FHR via Amex Plat it’s worth checking as if I recall correctly when I was looking to book a few months ago there were some decent offers on longer stays than ours e.g. 4 nights for 3 at some of the hotels. A quick look shows that of the hotels you mention, Fairmont Olympic and Four Seasons are on FHR (as are Hotel 1000 LXR, 1 Hotel Seattle and Lotte Hotel) and Kimpton Palladian and The Edgewater are on The Hotel Collection (as are five others).

As a general comment on Seattle, the homelessness situation is still apparent but nowhere near as bad as referenced in several forum comments since the pandemic, so it was good to see that there had been visible progress and the city was cleaner and had much more of a buzz about it than I was expecting. There was a noticeable police presence and we never felt unsafe (we also live and work in London so are used to being in the city). In contrast, the homelessness situation in Calgary has worsened greatly since our last visit in January 2024 and sounds like Seattle was during and immediately post-pandemic.

[davefl]

ExExpat wrote:

As a general comment on Seattle, the homelessness situation is still apparent but nowhere near as bad as referenced in several forum comments since the pandemic,

So no junkies lying in the street with needles sticking out of their arm 2 blocks up from the Palladian like I saw in June 24 then?

I liked it as a hotel but the staffing level was a disaster back then. Breakfast service in the ajoining restaurant didn’t start until after 10am (could only get a coffee in the bar) as the chef hadn’t turned in and everyone else was new. I got chatty with the duty manager and met her by accident at one of the weekend markets so got some details, basically all the staff were new as the previous lot had gone.

She was having some challenges to say the least.

Free wine in the lobby at happy hour was good.

Ditched the car at Avis, walked and got the bus. I didn’t feel unsafe anywhere.